Leave it to Richard Harrow, the biggest murderer on “Boardwalk Empire,” the man who’s killed 32 people and remembers them all, to deliver the most moving line of the season.

“I’d like to kiss you,” Richard says to his new girlfriend Julia as they sit on the sand under the boardwalk. Richard, wounded in World War I and aching for a family to love, wears a mask on his face and his heart on his sleeve. He’s sharing stories of love lost with Julia and she responds to his vulnerability be touching his cheek and kissing him passionately. On an episode that features one character shooting himself in the head, another being buried neck-deep in the sand and beaten to death with a shovel, and a major character boxed up and sent to Nucky Thompson’s house, dead on arrival, it’s nice to see some genuine happiness from an unexpected source.

Nobody else is letting their guard down. Nucky, all better after that nasty bomb-induced bump on the head, is trying to wipe out his enemies with a multi-front plan that would make Michael Corleone proud. He sends his brother Eli to Chicago for reinforcements from Johnny Torrio, sends Mickey Doyle to Pennsylvania to get Andrew Mellon’s still up and running, and sends Owen Sleater to New York to kill Joe Masseria. Look at Nucky, barking orders and acting all in charge again. Too bad this plan won’t work like the one Corleone used to consolidate his power in “The Godfather.” Nucky’s no Michael C., and Steve Buscemi’s no Al Pacino. He’s good, though, and never better than in the scene when Owen comes back in a crate, his bloody face screaming “return to sender.”

Nucky’s horrified to see Owen, his right-hand man and No. 1 imported assassin, stuffed in a crate like a giant Thanksgiving turkey, and even more upset to see his wife’s reaction. Margaret Thompson had big plans to skip on out to St. Louis with Owen, and now she sees her future as the cloistered wife of an embattled gangster, stuck in a hotel with two kids and a bun in the “Boardwalk Empire” oven. The annual character kill-off is underway, and Margaret’s messing with the need to cull the supporting-cast herd by getting pregnant with handsome Irishman Owen’s baby. Even though three characters died this week and only one pregnancy was announced, that’s just not enough. “Boardwalk Empire” has introduced roughly 9,000 characters in less than three seasons, and it’s time to round most of them up and send them off to “Deadwood” (if they’ve been good) or “Carnivale” (if they’re too hammy).

Kelly Macdonald, pregnant in real life, plays Margaret’s confusion and reserve to great effect and has her awards-show moment when Owen comes back in a box. Buscemi and Macdonald are professionals who can handle a big emotive challenge; her screams are a counterpoint to the quiet moment she shares with Owen (Charlie Cox) when she tells him the stork is coming to Atlantic City. She didn’t her new diaphragm in time and didn’t practice the family planning she preached at those women’s health classes at the hospital.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Margaret, unhappy and liberated for her time, attempts some home-remedy abortion. Maybe Macdonald will want a leave of absence and the producers will have her shot or poisoned or buried in the sand up to her neck. Gyp Rosetti would do it -- he’s a psycho, you know. If you didn’t, series creator Terence Winter and his team will remind you. Rosetti is too broadly drawn and obvious to be truly scary, and even Bobby Canavale’s menacing charm can’t build up more than a soupcon of suspense before he whacks somebody with a shovel. Owen was charming too, and look what it got him. Gyp’s going to meet a similar fate, and everybody knows as surely as they know Al Capone is going to take over Chicago by wiping out Dean O’Banion and Torrio.

Oh, you didn’t know that, and you aren’t sure who all these people are and why they have such complicated back stories? Don’t expect Winter and Co. to tell you. This is HBO, baby, where characters are born to die and the audience has to google everything to keep up. Nucky doesn’t know Torrio’s days are numbered and will do everything he can to make sure Gyp’s doesn’t make it to the season finale. No worries, Nuck -- those two guys are goners, or George Mueller’s real name isn’t Nelson Van Alden.

And take a moment for poor Mueller/Van Alden. All he wants to do is sell his wife’s bootleg liqour to her fellow Norwegians. Next thing he knows, George is in Capone’s whorehouse with a knife in his cheek, being forced to give up the inside scoop on O’Banion.

Joe Masseria wants the inside scoop on Nucky, and is willing to do a heroin deal with Luciano and Lansky to get it. Luciano, not known as “Lucky” yet, whispers in Joe M’s ear, and the next thing Nucky knows, there’s been an ambush and here comes Owen, back to Nucky Manor in a pine box.

Conspiracy theorists might imagine that Nucky knew about his wife’s affair with Owen and sent him to New York as part of an elaborate set-up. There’s some evidence to back this up -- Eddie the faithful servant was very suspicious of Owen and Margaret, and Nucky’s not stupid, head injury or not -- but I’m not buying it. I do think there could be more to Owen than met the eye, and that Nucky might be playing a long game against superior forces. With two episodes left, it’s time to eliminate a few more non-essential speaking parts, and time for Nucky to wake up and realize how isolated he really is. Having a plan is one thing; having a plan that works is another.